When Suzanne “Susi” Audy lost her brave battle with cancer on November 27, 2023, Buzz Legault appeared devastated. The Gold Rush star posted a heartfelt tribute video with the poignant message: “A man’s most precious jewel is the woman who walks beside him.” It seemed like the end of a chapter for the grieving miner who had stood by his long-time partner through her darkest days.
But fast forward just seventeen months, and Buzz is singing a very different tune. In April 2025, he casually announced on Facebook that he’s not only engaged to a new girlfriend, but she’s pregnant with his child. The speed of this transformation has left some fans wondering if Buzz’s devotion to Susi was as deep as those tribute posts suggested, or if he was already looking toward the exit before her body was even cold.
The timeline is striking when you lay it out. Susi passed away in late November 2023 after Buzz had supposedly been her devoted caretaker through her cancer battle. By early 2024, he was already involved with someone new. By spring 2025, he had not only moved on emotionally but was preparing for fatherhood with his new fiancée. For a man who claimed his partner was his “most precious jewel,” he certainly didn’t waste much time shopping for a replacement.
What makes the situation even more uncomfortable is how Buzz has handled the narrative. While he kept his relationship with Susi relatively public during their time together on Gold Rush, his new romance has been shrouded in secrecy. He’s refused to reveal his fiancée’s identity, keeping her carefully hidden from the public eye. It’s a curious contrast that suggests Buzz might be aware of how poorly this rapid-fire rebound looks to those who watched him mourn Susi.
The justification Buzz has offered for his return to Gold Rush in Season 16 centers entirely around his impending fatherhood. He told Kevin and Faith Beets that he needed “stability” now that he had a child on the way, which is why he wouldn’t return to work with Rick Ness. It’s a reasonable explanation on the surface, but it also conveniently sidesteps any mention of Susi or the fact that he’s apparently completely moved on from the woman he once called irreplaceable.
Some might argue that grief has no timeline and that Buzz deserves to find happiness again after losing his partner. That’s certainly true in theory. But there’s a difference between eventually moving on and seemingly sprinting away from your partner’s grave into the arms of someone new. Susi’s family watched Buzz care for her during her final months, with her son Jake even praising Buzz for helping his mother through the pain of losing another son. One has to wonder how they feel seeing Buzz not just dating again, but engaged and expecting a baby less than a year and a half after Susi’s death.
The optics become even worse when you consider Buzz’s behavior on the show. His dramatic exit from Rick Ness’s crew in Season 15 involved complaints about being “demoted” and feeling unappreciated. Yet somehow, during this period when he was supposedly so stressed about work conditions, he managed to find time to start a whole new relationship, get serious enough to propose, and get his new girlfriend pregnant. For someone who claimed to be overwhelmed and needed to sleep on the job, Buzz’s personal life was certainly moving at warp speed.
There’s also something calculated about how Buzz has rebranded himself for Season 16. He went to Mexico, got his teeth done, and returned with a completely new look and a new sob story about needing stability for his unborn child. It’s almost as if he’s trying to erase the Buzz who was with Susi and replace him with a newer, shinier version who conveniently has different priorities and responsibilities.
The Gold Rush community has always been one that values loyalty and toughness, traits that are supposed to extend beyond the mining claims. Buzz built his reputation partly on being the devoted partner who stuck with Susi through thick and thin. But his actions after her death suggest that devotion had an expiration date measured in weeks rather than years. When the going got tough, Buzz got going, straight into another woman’s arms.
Perhaps the most telling detail is Buzz’s insistence on privacy for his new relationship. If this was truly a beautiful story of finding love again after loss, why the secrecy? Why not introduce his new fiancée to the fans who watched him grieve? The hidden nature of this romance suggests that even Buzz knows how this looks, and he’s trying to control the narrative by keeping his new partner away from scrutiny and uncomfortable questions about timing.
At the end of the day, Buzz Legault has every right to move on with his life. But he doesn’t get to control how people perceive the speed and manner of that moving on. For someone who publicly mourned Susi as his “most precious jewel,” he certainly didn’t waste much time before heading back to the jewelry store. And for fans who believed in the sincerity of his grief, watching him emerge seventeen months later as an engaged father-to-be feels less like a heartwarming story of second chances and more like a masterclass in how quickly someone can rewrite their own history.
